The Way We Were
by RyanGosling4Ever
Summary: *Ch. 1!* Sad uptake of the song "The Way We Were". After Lance and Kitty's breakup after Mainstream, both reflect and look back at their much simpler and happier life and times before humans started cracking down on the mutant race. R&R!! ^_^


"Lance! This is like, the real you, isn't it?! You're nothing but a hood!"  
  
Lance had stared at her in shock. Looking back now, it shouldn't have surprised him so much when Kitty had said that to him. So why HAD it surprised him so much? Hurt him so much? Because he'd never expected Kitty Pryde to say those words to him. Other people had told him that his entire life, and Lance Alvers had shrugged it off with a 'So what?' attitude. With other people, he had already come to just accept their condescending attitudes toward him. It wasn't like he could change their view of him. But Lance really and truly never in a million years thought that it would come down to Kitty saying those words to him. Out of all people, it had to be the one person who had meant the world to Lance.  
  
*Damn it... Damn it... Damn it...*  
  
"DAMN IT!" Lance pounded on the poor defenseless kitchen table.  
  
"Um... h-hey Lance?" Todd started very cautiously inching toward the volatile senior. This was probably not the best or the safest move, especially considering the way that Lance was really beating up on the table now. But he couldn't just sit and watch his friend's sanity slowly slip away over a girl, and on top of that, an X-Geek.  
  
"What?!" The older teen snapped, looking up and glaring at Todd. He was definitely not in the best of moods. "What, are you gonna tell me that my relationship with Kitty was screwed right from the beginning too? Huh? Summers has already taken the satisfaction of rubbing that in my face, along with all the rest of those X-Nerds. You gonna do it too, Toad?" Lance snarled.  
  
"Hey, no way!" Todd shook his head as he hopped closer. "I ain't that heartless, yo! Aww, c'mon Lance, snap out of it. She ain't worth it, yo."  
  
"Thank you ever so much. The next time I need your opinion on things, I'll be sure to ask you, Toad!" Lance snarled.  
  
"He's right, Lance," a concerned Fred lumbered into the kitchen just then. "It's not worth getting this riled up over the Kittycat. She dumped you, man! Remember that!"  
  
"Yeah, and over what?" Lance muttered bitterly. "Those stupid 'normal' humans have gone too far this time. It's all their fault!"  
  
Todd simply looked at his friend, looked up at Fred, and then back at Lance, and decided it'd be the smartest choice to keep his mouth shut rather than risk getting into a tangle with Avalanche. Todd knew better than to reason with him when he was in that dangerous 'Talk,-You-Die' mood.  
  
Lance sighed. "I'm gonna go walk around outside or something. I'll be back before dark. If anybody comes looking for us, ignore them. If that weird Cajun guy comes back, tell him we're not interested in joining Magneto's little team of renegade losers. If Pietro comes back, you have my official permission to kill him." And with that, Lance got up and walked out the door.  
  
Todd and Fred stared out after their leader. "Man, he *did* have it bad for the Kittycat, didn't he?" Fred whistled.  
  
***  
  
Kitty sat alone in her room. Leaning back against the wall, she swallowed hard. *WHY did Lance have to like, go and DO something like that?!* Kitty closed her eyes, refusing to let the angry tears come. Taking a deep breath, she looked down at what she'd written on her laptop computer screen.  
  
{DEAR DIA,  
Why did it have to happen to us? I thought Lance was like, the perfect guy, but I guess I was wrong. In this world, there is no perfection. Pietro might like, argue against that, but then again, he has like, such a high opinion of himself it's totally sickening! But I never thought Lance would be on Duncan's side fighting against us. Against me... Y'know, when he said those words, it was just like, I don't know, like a huge stone dropped on me or whatever. Okay, that was like, a totally lame analogy, I know, but something like that. I don't know what to think anymore. I really don't. Why did things have to like, change so much? I used to remember when I could just talk to people around me, without it being much of a big deal whether I'm like, a mutant or whatever. I can still remember a time when I could talk to Lance about anything. Why did everything have to change?!}  
  
Kitty stared at the computer screen, reading and re-reading with tear-filled eyes what she'd written. Suddenly, there was a soft rapping on the door. She quickly saved what she had and closed her laptop with a snap.  
  
"Kitty?" Rogue's voice came from the other side. "Can Ah come in?"  
  
Kitty sighed, relieved. It was just Rogue. She had been afraid it'd be Scott or somebody, coming to give her a "I-told-you-Lance-would-be-nothing-but-trouble" speech.  
  
"Yeah sure, like, come in," Kitty called.  
  
Opening the door, Rogue stuck her head in. "Hey, V-Gal, you alright?"  
  
Kitty made a face and threw a pillow at her roommate. "Yeah, like why do you ask?"  
  
Ducking the pillow, Rogue crossed her arms. "Kitty, Ah was there too. Ah saw what happened."  
  
Kitty sighed. "Okay, okay, I get the point." There was a very long pause, as the young girl idly started tracing an invisible pattern on the bedsheet with her fingers. "I guess things weren't meant to like, work out right now, y'know?" she said at last, suddenly finding the bedsheet very interesting.  
  
Rogue looked at her younger roommate carefully. She felt bad for Kitty. She'd gotten close to Kitty over the year that they'd been forced to share rooms, and Rogue viewed Kitty as close as the sister that sh'ed never had.  
  
"Kitty, if Ah know Lance, he'll get over it. You know him and his temper."  
  
"You really think so?"  
  
Rogue smiled a little. "Ah know so. He loves you, Pryde. Ah know. Ah... *ahem* Ah accidently took the secret outta him one day." She smiled sheepishly.  
  
Kitty bit her lip. "Yeah, but did you like, totally see the way he looked at me when he said he wasn't good enough for me?" she asked miserably. "Whatever love he had then, Rogue, I guarantee you, is gone now."  
  
"Kitty, do you love him?"  
  
"Huh?" Kitty stared at the Southern girl, caught off guard by her question.  
  
"Do you love him?"  
  
"I- I don't know. I like, guess so..."  
  
Rogue nodded. "That's what Ah thought..." A far off look came into her eyes. "Ah knew you loved him," she said quietly, "because Ah see you in me and you remind me of how Ah felt when-" Rogue cut off at that moment, perhaps afraid of revealing too much of what's in a young girl's heart. She blushed, and quickly shook her head. "Forget Ah said that."  
  
"No, wait," Kitty said, her interest piqued and her attention momentarily distracted from the topic of Lance. "How you felt when what?"  
  
"It's nothin'," Rogue insisted, blushing deeper. "Ah'll tell ya later," she said quickly.  
  
Kitty sighed. "Okay. But you like, better, okay?"  
  
"Yeah." Rogue stood up from where she'd been sitting on her bed. "But it's 'bout time for dinner. Ya wanna go down to eat? Ah'm starvin' and mah stomach's drivin' me insane."  
  
"Okay, let me just like, put this away," Kitty said, setting her laptop on her writing desk. "Race ya!" And with that and a small grin reappearing on her face, she phased through the floor.  
  
Rogue blinked. "Ah hate it when you do that.." she muttered. "Why can't you be like a normal person and use the door?"  
  
  
  
  
Read and Review please! :D Pretty please? With a cherry on top? ^_^ And who is Rogue's Mystery Man? ^.~ 


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